First of all, thank you all for your continued patience and understanding over these past few months. We have missed you coming to our Branch Lobbies and Service Centers as much as you’ve missed coming in. We appreciate how you have adapted to the changes we made in our branches and service centers to help us ensure the health and safety of everyone.

The New Normal

We look forward to welcoming you back inside our lobbies and Service Centers! We’ve been working behind the scenes to update and prepare our Full-Service Branch lobbies and Member Service Centers to ensure the health and safety of our members and staff. 

As you know and have seen everywhere, businesses have had to change how they operate.  So, if you need to come visit a Full Service Branch or Service Center in the near future, things will be a bit different:

• Practice Social Distancing – keep a 6’ distance apart from others. We will have floor markers to assist you in determining safe distancing.
• Respectfully, we will ask you to wear a mask covering your nose and mouth while you’re inside the branch. We will have a limited supply of disposable masks if you don’t yet have a mask of your own.  This is for your safety and the safety of our staff and everyone else who is in the branch with you.
• As we will be monitoring safe capacities at our locations, we may ask you check in at the front entrance and then wait safely in your car until we text you when you are able to go inside.
• If you’ve recently experienced any symptoms related to COVID-19, been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or you have concerns about coming inside, please do not come in.

Remember, our drive-thru’s will still be open and available for you just as they have been since this all began.  We offer many digital services that you can use to manage your account! We encourage you to take advantage of these options:

• MyAccount Online & Mobile Banking: access your account balances, transaction history, make transfers, use Bill Pay, make Mobile Check Deposits, and even chat with us.
• ATM Access: cash withdrawals, check and cash deposits, transfers, and loan payments can be done at the ATMs at our Branch and Service Center locations. As always, you can make withdrawals at any of the over 30,000 CO-OP ATMs nationwide.

Financial Impact

We understand that many of our members will be affected by the layoffs and closures due to the Coronavirus. We continue to look for ways to help ease the financial impact on you. If you have concerns about your accounts or loans with us, we want to help you. Call us so we can discuss what options are available to get you through this time.

• Loan Payment Deferrals – we are working with our members who have been impacted financially to defer their loan payments – on personal loans, auto loans, credit cards, and mortgage loans they have with WestStar.
• Emergency Loans – we have options available for members in need.  Contact us to find out details.
• Reduced or Waived Fees – we have reduced or eliminated many of our fees and continue to look at ways to ease this further.
• Mobile Deposit Availability – with social distancing in effect, we realize that you may prefer to make your check deposits from home. In order to ensure you have the funds available in a timely manner, we will be reviewing all Mobile Deposits and making funds available the same day, if possible.

We have also made some changes to our Courtesy Overdraft program. Given the impact of the shutdown, these changes were necessary so that this program is available for those who need it the most.  If you have questions or concerns on this, please call us to discuss at (702) 791-4777.

Beware of Scams

Sadly, times like this are when scams start popping up – the fraudsters are looking to take advantage of our desire to protect yourselves and your families. Unfortunately, we have to warn you to be cautious. Only click on links within emails that you trust and limit your online spending to trusted secure websites. We have seen some emails that look very good, but you can usually spot a fake by the "from" email address. Legitimate emails will be sent from valid email addresses, such as "[email protected]" or "[email protected]". You can also look for poor grammar or spelling errors to determine the legitimacy of an email. Avoid clicking on links within emails at all.

With the announcement of the US Government stimulus package, the scam artists are already in action. Don't believe any emails, letters, or other communication that asks for your personal information or any money in order to get your stimulus. These payments will be sent to those who qualify automatically.

Also, beware of any offers to give you cash if you complete your US Census survey.

Another scam we have seen is the text stating that someone you've come in contact with has COVID-19 with a link to click. DO NOT click this link. This is not legitimate.

Beware of people portraying to be representatives of WestStar Credit Union fraud and claiming to be verifying a possible debit transaction. Fraudsters also like to send a text message asking for members online account information, including username, PIN, card number, and other forms of personal identification information (PII). We will never ask you for this information to verify your identity.

We will share updates with you here as this situation continues to unfold, and we will serve you however we are able given the circumstances we are all facing. We are here with you, and we will get through these times together.